Bend With the Wind
by storyshark2005
Summary: Because if you don't bend a little, you're bound to break. Now at least a two-shot. Minerva begins to deal with past tragedy that we don't know about. She finds healing in Myles, and observes Artemis and Holly, who are also trying to cope. Post TTP.
1. The Bitter Cold

Bend With the Wind

Storyshark2005

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Disclaimer: No, I don't own Artemis Fowl, or anything related, blah blah blah.

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The wind blows out of the gates of the day,  
The wind blows over the lonely of heart,  
And the lonely of heart is withered away.  
_- __William Butler Yeats__._

Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.  
_- Ernest Hemingway._

_..._

Artemis anxiously glanced at his watch for the tenth time in the past three minutes. Normally, he would not resort to such idiosyncrasies, but today everything in his normally smooth façade was slipping, just a little bit.

Holly was coming for a visit.

He hadn't seen her in what seemed like ages_. (Amusingly enough, _he thought, _the word 'ages' is fairly appropriate, considering…)_ They had kept up quite well, using their communicators, but ever since they had gotten back from the paradox…well things had changed.

Even more so since the Hybras incident, Artemis now felt a tangible bond between Holly and himself. It seemed as if he had a physical need, to hear her voice, to feel her very presence…and it wasn't just because of the kiss. He wasn't self-absorbed enough to equate her act of kissing him as anything more than giddy relief.

It was just as if no one else, not Butler, not his parents, _certainly_ not Minerva…no one but Holly truly understood him now. How he worked, what he was thinking. (Though, even Holly had a time working that out. But she seemed to get closer than any mortal ever could.)

_Minerva…_now that was another issue entirely. She had changed. Now good friends with his family, with Butler…and Myles adored her. While Artemis had grown distant, Minerva had become a surrogate elder sister to Myles, and even a lab partner.

_She really is something…_he mused. Yes, she was smart. Yes, she was beautiful. Yes, she got along great with his family. Yes, she had even managed to evade that propensity for which most genii fall victim to…She wasn't an egotistical bastard.

He didn't know why he just didn't ask her out or something. She had all but begged him, dropping hints here and there. _Now that's hardly fair,_ he told himself, _it wasn't really her. _An awful lot of it was his parents doing, inviting her over and dropping _her_ hints that Artemis was interested.

But she was no Holly.

And that was enough for him.

...

Minerva Paradizo tucked a stray lock of gold hair behind her ear as the biting autumn wind flung it chaotically about her delicate, pink face. Her soft blue sweater seemed to do nothing to cut the gusts, and she tightened her arms around her middle, pulling her thumbs into her sleeves.

As her feet crunched down the long white gravel drive of Fowl Manor, lined on both sides by tall Cyprus trees, looking like a Greek paradise, her clear blue gaze flicked up to the back of a young man standing about 100 meters further down the drive. His back clad in black Armani, complimenting his dark head of hair.

She stopped a several feet back, hesitant.

"Artemis?"

Artemis turned his head slightly at the sound of her softly accented voice, and cocked his ear in her direction, acknowledging her to continue.

She drew in a shaky breath, cold and still unsure.

"Don't you want to wait inside? Your mother has hot chocolate, and she's worried…well everyone's worried. You've been out here for two hours. It's cold…"

Artemis smirked. "Minerva, I've been through worse." He faced forward, his words now being carried away by the wind. "Siberia…" and he was carried off by memories.

Minerva bit her lip. "But you had a coat in Siberia." She smiled softly, and stepped the last few feet, even with him. She surveyed him from the side, her gaze quietly scanning his pink cheeks, foggy breath, dark hair, blue eyes…

"I'm not cold…" he said.

And he turned to face her, his hazel eye startling her, as it always did. It seemed she would never get used to it. Its warmth seemed out of place amongst the cold blacks and blues. Everything about him used to be sharp…cold. From his eyes to his wit.

Now…well, he had changed.

It had finally seemed, after three years, that she had gotten him back. But as soon as he had come, he was gone again. Maybe not physically, but mentally he was somewhere else. At first she had thought it was because of his mother's sickness. But really, it had started after that…after Angeline had recovered.

She wanted so badly to know what was going on inside his head, what he was thinking. But every time she got close, he shut her out again.

The air a few feet in front of them seemed to shimmer, and she heard a quiet laugh from Artemis.

He turned to face her again, still smiling. "I'll be there in a minute. Tell mother to make another mug of hot chocolate."

She nodded, gave a last glance at the shimmering spot, and started back towards the house.

This time, the cold air blasted her face.

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A/N- Hey everyone! Thanks to my first three reviewers! JJohnz, midnightwaters, and ilex-ferox.

So what do you think?

I do wish Eoin would have made Minerva a little more three dimensional. Don't get me wrong, I was with all the rest of the Minerva-haters after TLC came out, but now I've gotten to thinking what she would actually be like, as a real person. She has potential guys…


	2. A Warm Autumn Sun

Bend With the Wind

Storyshark2005

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Disclaimer: I own nothing, don't sue.

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Chapter Two: A Warm Autumn Sun

...

'Myles!'

Minerva laughed, and chased after the six year old galloping ahead of her. The summer sun warmed her shoulders, while a brisk early autumn wind gave her goosebumps. It was a beautiful day in early September, and summer was winding to an end.

Myles' dark head turned to laugh at her- his foot caught on a tree root, and he pitched forward to his knees. Minerva rushed over, barley able to keep standing with laugher, grabbed him about the waist and spun him around and around before exhaustedly collapsing against a nearby oak tree, still holding the exhausted child in her arms.

Planting her chin on head and looking out through his dark brown hair, she once again caught herself in complete happiness, which seemed to happen more and more these days. Myles, leaning against her chest, breathed in rhythm with her, absorbed in a leaf that he was tearing up.

Minerva smiled into his soft, silky hair and mumbled, 'Myles, what do you see?'

He smiled at their little game. 'I see…a leaf. Fallen off th' tree. It's gotten cold, and the tree has pulled in all of its energy, lettin' 'em fall. It's red because the chlorophyll is all gone.'

'Anything else?'

'About the leaf? No.'

'About anything else?'

'No.'

'Well, if you are a scientist, you will have to see a lot more than that.'

'I see Artemis.'

Minerva looked up and spotted Artemis across the sloping grounds, under a grove of oaks. He was leaning his shoulder against a tree, apparently talking to a small figure sitting with her back on the same tree, who was looking up and smiling at Artemis.

Holly had been making frequent visits topside for quite some time now. Minerva had talked with the fairy (yes, she was well aware of the People) and liked her well enough. She missed having witty banter with Artemis though. It had been three years since his return from Limbo and subsequent time traveling fiasco. Holly and Artemis were close, that much was clear. But there was something else there, she could tell. The way he lit up when she was around, whenever he name was mentioned. He loved her.

Was it possible? A fairy and a human? Well, she would just have to wait and find out.

Minerva watched the wind play with Artemis's midnight hair. He said something and Holly laughed. Her red hair was radiant as her smile, and her blue and hazel eyes fixed on Artemis's face, laughing and sparkling. There was an ease to his posture, a peace. His head tilted back to the blue sky, and Holly seemed to study him reverently, but with the air of someone who knew the faults beneath the splendid and beautiful surface. She was one of the few who really knew him.

Minerva envied her, she really did. However, there was one thing she did have…

Myles was her life. He was the reason she got up in the morning and the reason she slept at night. She had long ago given up on having the type of close relationship she wanted with Artemis. But Myles…he had saved her.

He was brilliant. That was obvious. But he was so much more- sensitive, curious, kind. Everything she wished she could be. The stigma of the genius had, as much as it had done to Artemis, isolated her as a child. She had grown up spoiled and selfish, cold and withdrawn. Maybe not to the extent that Artemis had gone to, but then again he wasn't like that until the disappearance of his father. Before that, he had been relatively normal. Or so said Butler.

Butler. That was another thing. Since the events of the previous, he had become an older brother to her. Her new family at the Manor- the Angeline and Artemis I, who doted and loved her like a daughter; Butler; Juliet, who occasionally stayed, was like a sister. Myles, who was closer than anyone; Beckett was still a little brother, but not nearly as close to her as Myles was. And then there was Artemis….whose relationship was still a puzzle.

Memories threatened to surface, and she quickly shut them out. _Not now…_ She breathed in, and concentrated on Myles, who was still in her lap. Taking his hand, she stood up. They walked hand in hand, comfortably swinging their hands back and forth, back and forth.

'What should we do now, Myles? It's a beautiful day.'

'Could we go to the beach? I'd like to see the ocean.'

Smiling, she nodded. The wind swirled her blonde curls and ruffled Myles' dark mop. Today would be a good day.

Together, they continued down the sloping lawn toward the back gate, which led to the rocky cliffs and down to the sea.

Yes, today would be a good day. She could feel it.


End file.
